Van Lathan Blasts Rappers For Not Interviewing With ‘Traditional’ Hip-Hop Media: ‘They’re Afraid To Have The Conversation’

Van Lathan called out rappers for appearing on trendy social media shows rather than sitting down for in-depth interviews with “traditional” hip-hop journalists.

Van Lathan is calling out rappers who appear on trendy social media shows rather than sitting down for in-depth interviews with “traditional” hip-hop journalists.

The former TMZ producer appeared on the Bootleg Kev Podcast, where he tackled the trend.

“It is incumbent upon hip-hop artists to do interviews with hip-hop media because that feeds the ecosystem,” Lathan said. “They have to do hip-hop media…If you are a rap artist and a big rap artist, you have to do traditional hip-hop media…You have to do it all the time.”

Citing the “[cultural] responsibility” rappers have “to invest back into the media,” Lathan noted how their appearances “feed the ecosystem of hip-hop.” Instead, 2023 saw rappers like Drake, Offset, and Lil Yachty sit down with white podcaster Bobbi Althoff, who was accused of using an unbothered schtick (many accuse her of copying from Black podcaster Funny Marco) to capitalize off of Black hip-hop fans.

“The people who look like Bobbi (Althoff), they gon’ eat off hip-hop regardless,” Lathan said. “The question is whether or not the Black people, and not just Black but the people in hip-hop media, whether they’re going to eat off of it.”

The Higher Learning podcast host believes it’s a fear rappers have with sitting down with real hip-hop journalists who will hold them accountable and get them to talk about topics they might not be well versed in.

“As hard as they are, they are equally p**sy. And I say they [are] equally p**sy because everybody wanna be hip-hop, but don’t nobody wanna be hip-hop,” Lathan said. “Don’t nobody wanna sit down and answer questions in the way that hip-hop interviewers ask them…Hip-hop is supposed to be this cultural art form where we don’t dance around, and we get straight to the point.”

He continued. “They’re afraid to have the conversation, so they would rather go sit down with someone that has a big platform that will treat them [in] a way, to me, that is not culturally authentic than actually have a culturally authentic and powerful conversation with someone that benefits…the entire hip-hop ecosystem.”